MultiVersus' Performance Leaves a Dent in Warner Bros. Games

According to a report from IGN, things are not looking great for MultiVersus, or Warner Bros. Games in general.

At this point, it wouldn't be controversial to say that MVS has been somewhat of a flop. The game started off great and had a lot of hype surrounding its potential. Smash Bros. could always use some competition, and unlike many other titles in the genre, MultiVersus added a meaningful iteration on the formula with its focus on 2v2 combat, different character archetypes, and the perk build system.

Sadly, the game also faced more than a few issues. Netcode on launch left a lot to be desired, the lack of ranked for most of its run has dampened competitive enthusiasm, the MTX system after the game was brought back is frankly atrocious, and fundamentally, it didn't quite capture the audience that has been religiously polishing their skills in Melee or Ultimate. Meanwhile, more casual players didn't quite connect with many of the licensed WB characters in the base roster.

Well, with the recent financial call, we know just how impactful these losses have been for Warner Bros. according to David Zaslav and Gunnar Wiedenfel, the poor performance of MultiVersus has added a $100 million writedown on top of the existing $200 million that were brought about by the failing Suicide Squad.

In the future, the company will attempt to salvage this by trying to squeeze their more proved developers and more successful IPs, like Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, DC, and Hogwarts Legacy. However, if their plan for that is to force these companies to make what they think is popular, like they did with Suicide Squad, they will need a lot of luck.

As for Player First Games, it's not looking good. As is often the case, the developers tend to answer for the mistakes of executives, with Rocksteady being hit with layoffs after the flop of Suicide Squad. If even a seasoned studio like that had to take a hit, what we can expect to happen to PFG?